6 February 2009

Disney/ABC/ESPN and Net Neutrality

As you’ll know if you’ve read my previous rants about how broken the TV industry is , the reason why cable and satellite is so expensive is that Disney won’t let carriers offer you ABC unless they also bundle ESPN into their base package; and ESPN is one of the most expensive channels.

Well, ESPN are trying to do the same thing with your Internet connection . They’re “offering” ISPs the option of paying a per-subscriber fee, in return for which their subscribers will be allowed to watch ESPN streaming video. Or to put it another way, if your ISP doesn’t cough up an extra fee, your ESPN web site access will be deliberately degraded. This is exactly what net neutrality proposals are intended to prevent.

I just checked, and Roadrunner in Austin doesn’t appear to be paying the protection money, according to ESPN360’s web site. So I sent a thank-you note to Time Warner, and asked them not to start paying in future.